Ok, I'm going to start going digital on all of my old camcorder videos and was wondering what's the best system to go with. Should I spend the cash for a vid card with VIVO or get a standalone usb 2.0 device to convert it? Also, what are some of the good brands/formats that you guys have used as far as DVD recorder drives go?

just use your penis.

im just messing. your choice all depends on how much work you want to do. if you buy a card, obviously you have to install it. if you buy a standalone usb 2.0 converter it could very well cost the same as a getting a video capture card but it will have a lesser video quality.

This is a difficult question, honestly if you have a small number of really high quality tapes you are best off sending this to a lab, or getting a stand alone VHS to DVD machine, then when you are done with the tapes you have, return it.
As far as vivo cards go. I would say a pci tv tuner is going to get better signal quality than a video card with integrated composite in.
I have used an nvidia chipset card to do video transfer and it was not great. I have an ATI tv wonder that is pretty good for vhs transfer with my cheep VCR.
Ideally you want to get a DV camera and a fire wire card in your PC, but this will be expensive. I would not use a USB tuner/capture device.
So again, looking at VHS to DVD, get the Phillips stand alone box, use it, return it. This will cost you nothing (except the media).